Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Bahrain Parliament erupted into a shouting match this week after an official lashed out at Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa for shaking hands with a Jew in New York City.

The following day parliamentarians demanded an apology for the "blood on hands" verbal attack by the foreign minister.The Gulf Daily reported:

MPs demanded an apology yesterday after Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa accused them of having Palestinian blood on their hands.

An MP, who urged the minister to wash his hands after meeting Israel Foreign Minister Tzipora "Tzipi" Livni, later backtracked saying he was only suggesting that Ms Livni was "dirty".

"I meant Tzipi is dirty and Shaikh Khalid, who is clean, should purify his hands," said MP Nasser Al Fadhala in a statement.

"What he threw at us in his anger, us cleaning our hands of the Palestinian blood, shocked us because our hands are not like the hands of those he has shaken."

Bahrain, of course, is a moderate Arab nation.

Arabs agree to attend Annapolis talks (AP)CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed Friday to attend next week's U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions. In a sign of the skepticism, even among close U.S. allies, the Saudi foreign minister cautioned that there would be no public handshakes with Israeli officials at the gathering Tuesday in Annapolis, Md.